20M : Beware the early "Upgrade me" website offer!

[daemon]

Hi,

A cautionary tale.

Yesterday I accessed My Virgin Media and followed the Upgrade me link to order a 60M upgrade from 20M. All appeared well and I completed the process printing out the details page which said I would be receiving an engineer visit on my chosen date (21st April 2012) at my chosen time (between 10:00 and 14:00).

Shortly after doing this, I lost my present 20M service and my cable modem Ready light started to blink continuously.

I contacted faults (on 151) and India told me that there was a fault and an engineer would be dispatched tomorrow (19th March 2012) between 12:00 and 16:00 to fix the problem. I took an afternoon off work to await this visit and nobody was forthcoming.

I contacted faults today (19th March 2012) and was told that my present service had been terminated because my Contract was pending. So my free upgrade to 60M had been translated into a new service request and I was also going to be charged £49.99 for a new installation.

Having asserted that I have been with ntl: and VirginMedia for 11 years now I was told that the "installation" would be cancelled and my existing service reinstated.

This took another diversion through Customer Relations to Technical Services before I was able to get my existing 20M service back again. The Technical person I spoke to did say that a Super Hub is allocated to me and should be with me soon.

So, it appears, the My Virgin Media Upgrade me functionality is potentially broken and if you use it you risk losing your current service and being treated as a new install. It was also erroneous in stating an Engineer visit would be required as the Technical person I spoke to assured me that this is an end-user upgrade i.e. just swap your existing modem for the Super Hub.

Regards,
Neil Darlow

[DABhand]

Wow....

Thats just wow

[qasdfdsaq]

Epic fail.

[General Maximus]

yup, I would love to know how many of these they are screwing up because it is going to cause a lot of agro, especially on the billing side where they are charing peeps for installation and/or the shub

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by daemon

It was also erroneous in stating an Engineer visit would be required as the Technical person I spoke to assured me that this is an end-user upgrade i.e. just swap your existing modem for the Super Hub.

This worries me in that from my recent experience the Superhub is more sensitive on the receive side, my figures for an Ambit 2050 (business version of the Ambit 250) were about 5db and with the superhub on the same cable it would be 9db. It's only the splitter that I asked to be installed (4/3.6db loss) that the figures are within limits. (The original isolator was 0.4db)

So I can see a lot of people with borderline high power levels needing the engineers visit.. Although at that time it'll be a fault and free it could mean loss of services for the time between the superhub install and the engineers visit.

[qasdfdsaq]

It's been said in the past that the Superhub seems more tolerant of higher power levels than, say the VMNG300. How much of that is from it being 8-channel capable and only receiving 4 (at that time) and hence only using half it's "capability" I don't know.

[thenry]

whats the combined limit for all 8 down.

and 4 up.

[greeninferno]

Originally Posted by daemon

Hi,

A cautionary tale.

Yesterday I accessed My Virgin Media and followed the Upgrade me link to order a 60M upgrade from 20M. All appeared well and I completed the process printing out the details page which said I would be receiving an engineer visit on my chosen date (21st April 2012) at my chosen time (between 10:00 and 14:00).

Shortly after doing this, I lost my present 20M service and my cable modem Ready light started to blink continuously.

I contacted faults (on 151) and India told me that there was a fault and an engineer would be dispatched tomorrow (19th March 2012) between 12:00 and 16:00 to fix the problem. I took an afternoon off work to await this visit and nobody was forthcoming.

I contacted faults today (19th March 2012) and was told that my present service had been terminated because my Contract was pending. So my free upgrade to 60M had been translated into a new service request and I was also going to be charged £49.99 for a new installation.

Having asserted that I have been with ntl: and VirginMedia for 11 years now I was told that the "installation" would be cancelled and my existing service reinstated.

This took another diversion through Customer Relations to Technical Services before I was able to get my existing 20M service back again. The Technical person I spoke to did say that a Super Hub is allocated to me and should be with me soon.

So, it appears, the My Virgin Media Upgrade me functionality is potentially broken and if you use it you risk losing your current service and being treated as a new install. It was also erroneous in stating an Engineer visit would be required as the Technical person I spoke to assured me that this is an end-user upgrade i.e. just swap your existing modem for the Super Hub.

Regards,
Neil Darlow

did you not get the self install for free option on that page?

[jaf1968]

Didn't get the self-install option here.

Did get some paperwork in the post telling me I'll be charged for the install despite the web site telling me it would be free...

Called up and explained all this to the call centre guy, who then asked if I was having a problem with my broadband speed

Eventually got through to Customer services who are going to credit me with the 49.95...

How's the Super Hub behaving these days?

Ducks

J

[DABhand]

I see India is now pushing for people to get onto the digitial homehelp premium service.

[greeninferno]

Originally Posted by jaf1968

Didn't get the self-install option here.

Did get some paperwork in the post telling me I'll be charged for the install despite the web site telling me it would be free...

Called up and explained all this to the call centre guy, who then asked if I was having a problem with my broadband speed

Eventually got through to Customer services who are going to credit me with the 49.95...

How's the Super Hub behaving these days?

Ducks

J

when i clicked through the "upgrade me" there were a list of options

self install free

tech install £50 etc.

then a drop down thing for the date the s.hub was to be posted.

Sounds like the page you got is broken.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by thenry

whats the combined limit for all 8 down.

and 4 up.

33 dBmv down following the 3dB double up rule. (Work that one out!)

8 = 2^3. So anything higher than 11 dBmv blows the Docsis 3 limit.

[thenry]

[daemon]

Originally Posted by greeninferno

did you not get the self install for free option on that page?
when i clicked through the "upgrade me" there were a list of options

self install free

tech install £50 etc.

then a drop down thing for the date the s.hub was to be posted.

Sounds like the page you got is broken.

No. The only options presented to me were the choice of two times and dates for an engineer visit. Perhaps it displays options dependent on service quality for your area. The after-submission processing was completely messed-up for me.

Regards,
Neil Darlow

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by daemon

Perhaps it displays options dependent on service quality for your area.

That is correct, there are background checks performed that will then present appropriate options. The same applies if you do it via Customer Services - the system will tell them whether it's an engineer install or not

---------- Post added at 09:48 ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 ----------

In regards to the original post, it's likely a system glitch. I have seen it before where for some reason the existing service disconnects as part of broadband upgrade when new kit is required.

Usually it's down to a miskey somewhere - certainly not part of the system or on purpose